500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training

If you’re dedicated to a deeper understanding and imbibing of the yogic sciences, then a 500 hour training may be for you.

Many 500 hour programs are done over a longer period of time because of the intensive time requirement. These programs can be done over a 1-3 year period.

Or you could take one 200 hour intensive and a 300 hour intensive, both of which are often done in programs that are about a month or two each. Then you need 100 hours of practical teaching experience to be certified as a RYT 500 (Registered Yoga Teacher).

Mantras: utterance of certain sounds, either internally or externally, to affect the system or environment

Chanting and Kirtan: singing or chanting with mantras to purify yourself and the space

Prayer: offering oneself up in devotion

Kriyas: a process of performing an internal action, often involving the breath

Concentration: the ability to achieve a single-pointed focus on an internal or external object

Meditation: a direct practice of inner discovery

The training will include direct training on a combination of these practices, as well as instruction on how to teach them. Practices will be both guided experientially, and broken down intellectually.

2. Teaching Methods

Hours of instruction: 30

Methods of teaching are different than specific instructions on teaching certain techniques like a set of asanas, or specific mantras. Those would fall under the Yogic Techniques category.

Specific needs: every person who comes to your classes or retreats have their own needs. Training in how to meet those needs in both personal and group atmospheres.

Communication skills: how to create proper boundaries in the classroom, set priorities, manage your time, and work with the unique dynamics that every group manifests.

How students learn: not everyone just “gets” the practice. Instruction on the general progression students take as they learn and absorb the intellectual material and experiential practices.

Demonstrating: instruction on the process of teaching a practice itself. How to properly show the practice, be aware of your students as they try, then helping and correcting them.

Teaching styles: everyone has their own style of teaching, and depending on the style of yoga you’ll be learning there are specifics to be learned.

Attributes of a great teacher: instruction on how to truly embody the privilege and position of being a yoga teacher. What qualities and attributes make a great yoga teacher.

The business of yoga: becoming certified is one part of the journey. Turning your certification into a thriving yoga offering is where the business side comes in. That’s why so many end up offering retreats with us at BookRetreats. We make business easier so you can spend more time doing what you do best: teaching yoga :)

Only 5 hours of the 30 can be about the business of yoga.

3. Anatomy and Physiology

Hours of instruction: 35

You’ll learn about the human system including: muscular-skeletal structure, the nervous system, and the organs. This section of the course can include the anatomy of the energy body as well, including study of the chakras and nadis (energy channels).

At least 15 hours in the course has to be dedicated toward applying the anatomical knowledge specifically to yoga. This is to ensure that the knowledge doesn’t remain intellectual, but is able to be applied to the classroom setting.

Additional potential included topics: contraindications (specific situations where people should not do a certain practice or movement), benefits of certain practices and methods, and how to move the body in an aligned and healthy way.

4. Yogic Philosophy and Ethics While Teaching

Hours of instruction: 60

At least 2 of these hours must be dedicated specifically to ethics while teaching yoga. Why?

Because you’ll run into many different dynamics that will test your ethics. Situations that don’t necessarily have clear or easy answers. Places where you’ll have to use your best judgement and ultimately your intuition.

Some example areas of instruction:

Traditional texts: reading and interpreting texts like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, and the Bhagavad Gita.

Ethics: how to deal with student-teacher dynamics, including relationships and sexuality.

Seva: becoming an instrument of service to others through delivering the practice of yoga in a pure and authentic way.

Yogic lifestyle: adopting various practices from the Yamas and Niyamas (two of the limbs of yoga from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras), and the potential benefits of a vegetarian diet when doing yoga.

5. Actual Teaching Practice

Hours of instruction: 40

Every student on the course must spend a minimum of 10 hours as the head teacher of a class.

This does not include assisting other teachers, getting feedback or critique from the leader of the course, or critiquing other students on the course.

It must be direct practice as the head teacher. However, time when the student is getting feedback on their teaching is included in the 10 hour minimum.

Typically you’ll receive practice in the following areas:

Teaching: being the head instructor and leading an actual class, normally composed of the students on the course itself